TFO broken tip

Chadk

Life of the Party
So about 6 months ago, I had a trip to Hawaii where I did a little fishing. Some of you will recall that from the other site... The night before heading out, I put the rod in the travel case, and managed to snap the tip. So, I fired off some panic messages on the old site and reached out to a few guys who I knew lived on the island I was going to. I was able to get a rod from an awesome dude that lives in Seattle - met me on the way to the airport. Then a reel to borrow from another awesome dude on the island. Trip saved. Team effort. Was amazing.

Anyway, once back, I had to figure out what to do with the rod. I got it about a year before from a garage sale in a huge bin fill of fishing gear. Brand new TFO rod and reel combo in travel case. Got the entire bin of stuff for $150. Great find. So clearly, I'm not the original owner with no warranty card or proof of purchase. Repairing could be an option but can be time consuming, possibly expensive, and just a hassle over all (assuming it is even repairable, and you won't lose length or atheistics). In the past with other rods, I was able to get a new tip section for $50 shipping and handling on that company's no questions asked warranty. So, I went to the TFO site just to see my options. Turns out, for $23 (33 total after shipping and tax), they would send me a new rod tip as part of their certified parts program. So, about a week later I was back in business with a new tip section that fit perfectly.
 
I have a TFO 7' 9" finesse rod in a 3wt. I had my rod strung up and laying in my car across the seats. I picked up one of our dogs and he got all tangled up in my rod. It got pretty well broken. I connected TFO about getting it fixed. They sent me a new rod for 25 bucks. When it showed up I just put the broken rod in the box and sent it back.

I have a GL3. Used their expirer service, got a new rod for 50 bucks. Rod broke while I was stringing it up. I don't know if they still do that on GLOOMIS rods.
 
I had a fly dangling off the side of the drift boat and the anchor line caught it when I dropped the anchor.....SNAP! TFO replaced it super promptly, no hassle. I've never been anything but impressed with TFOs customer service.
 
Not very helpful, but I know of a TFO with a nice Lamson reel at the bottom of Lake Powell....... :-(
 
I once had a steelhead size rainbow yank the rod and reel out of my hand at a private lake. I didn't just drop it out of my pontoon boat, a trout took it from me.

I always have backup rods and reels so started finning back to my rig to pickup my spare equipment so I could keep fishing.

My fishing buddy started yelling for me to come back. I didn't realize the fact but he was using his sink line and a heavy weighted fly in an attempt to snag my rod, reel or line ... he had managed to snag one of the line guides on the rod and brought it into his boat ... with the trout still attached !

I finned back as soon as I could when I could see him fighting the fish I hooked with my rod. I grabbed his rod and reel and got out of the way. He managed to land the huge trout with my gear. ... a neat feat because he reels on the right side and my reel is set up for left side reeling.

The rod was is of my favorites so while him landing the big hunk'n trout was nice, it was much nicer that he had rescued that rod.

Oh, and me and the above mentioned fishing buddy have both suffered broken TFO rods and both received great service !
 
On my little kayak rolling incident I had three rods in the Scotty holders...and none of them protected with the little strap (a practice I've since changed for rods that aren't being actively fished). Two were TFOs and one was a Sage X. I mostly fish TFOs because they cast and fish quite well, and breaking or losing one isn't the emotional catastrophe of the same thing happening to a rod costing 4 times as much. All rods, now being upside down in the Scotty holders, rotated and headed to the bottom of the lake, but could be retrieved in the tangle of lines in the lillypads.

Doubt I'll ever bother to purchase another Sage, because I can't definitively state it's much different than a TFO.
 
Lake Powell is in serious serious trouble

9News.com KUSA: Extraordinary action in a time of crisis planned for Lake Powell.

Wonder what happens to the dam when the water pressure can't force it against the sides of the canyon anymore
 
Interesting question. Unlike Hoover Dam (a pioneering arch dam engineering and construction feat), a significant number of arch dams had been designed and constructed in the interim between the Hoover and the Glen Canyon dam. Hopefully, advances in heavy civil engineering science addressed such possibilities, though it's unlikely anybody truly anticipated the current situations. Perhaps such massive arch dams will simply behave as gravity structures during falling water levels.

One thing working in that favor is that a great many such structures of that era were greatly over-built with very significant structural safety factors since engineers didn't possess today's computer modeling capability (which allows design and construction of cheaper but inherently more fragile structures).
 
Last edited:
Wow, this may be even more dire than previously thought:

Gizmodo: Feds Plan Extreme Measures to Keep Lake Powell Generating Electricity.

At least they've not found bodies in barrels that could, or could not, be Jimmy Hoffa as they have in Lake Meade.
 
Back
Top